Details surface in DUI suspect's death on Eisenhower

Woman walking along expressway after release by police had high blood-alcohol level, family attorney says

December 16, 2011|By Brian Slodysko, Chicago Tribune reporter

A 25-year-old Chicago woman had a blood-alcohol level roughly two times the legal limit when she was struck and killed by a motorist while walking along the Eisenhower Expressway three months ago, shortly after she was released by Illinois State Police following a DUI arrest, an attorney for her family said Friday.

Police at the time of the crash said Diana Paz was "coherent and alert" when a trooper dropped her off at a nearby gas station on Mannheim Road in Westchester before she was struck by a Toyota truck on the morning of Sept. 2.

But a recently released Cook County medical examiner's report found Paz was intoxicated at the time of her death, raising the question of whether Paz should have been released from police custody, said Tim Cavanagh, the attorney representing her family. The family has filed a motion in Cook County court requesting information on the ongoing state police investigation into Paz's death.

Cavanagh said Paz's family wants to know why she was dropped off "in the middle of the night when it was dark out, when she was clearly intoxicated, with no vehicle, no way to get home, no purse and no cellphone."

"We know now irrefutable evidence that Diana was intoxicated and the state police's statement that she was not is just not correct," said Cavanagh.